Air NZ culls off-shore call centres

By Phil Boeyen, ShareChat Business News Editor

Monday 14th January 2002

Air New Zealand (NZSE: AIR) has announced it will close its international English-speaking reservations services and transfer the jobs back to New Zealand.

The call centres are currently based in London, Vancouver and Los Angeles but the airline says it will bring the services back home to Auckland and Christchurch.

"Consolidation of the English-speaking call centres is aimed at delivering an improved service, higher productivity and reduced costs," the airline says,

"An international customer response centre based in New Zealand makes sound sense as local staff have first hand knowledge of New Zealand as a destination and the nuances of travel in this country. Consequently they are better placed to support enquiries from Australia, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom."

The airline says centralising the work also means it can put in place an improved 24 hour, 7 days a week service and better manage market specific peaks and troughs.

Air NZ plans to keep its strong sales and marketing presence, including its Travel Centres, in the off-shore locations and will continue to manage ticketing from these sites.

The company is currently looking to boost its Auckland operation by 39 full-time staff to manage the extra work although some tasks will be crossed-over with its Christchurch call centre, which is responsible for Air Points enquiries.

"Downsizing of the off-shore sites has been a managed process which began last year following reduced demand for air travel after the events of September 11," Air NZ says.

The cost of redundancies at the overseas locations has not yet been disclosed.

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